Krug + McAvoy is teh fatal flaw in this. Talk about gamebreakinig possibilities at BOTH ends of the ice. Sure they'll create some offense, but damn are they going to be fishing the puck out of the net a lot.

Backes at C is so 2011-2012, I'm not even sure he's up for all the extra skating a C has to do and the extra responsibility and I know he wouldn't be a Selke type defender anymore. If JFK is on the team, he'll be the C, no questions asked because I thought everyone was on the same page.

Bjork on line 1 is interesting.

Kenny Agostino is a turd. IF you're a RFA and your team doesn't qualify you and then you sign a 1 year deal under 1M.... you shouldn't make an NHL roster. NHLers get paid more than that, especially when they are 25 years old.

Heinen at C on the 4th line is humorous, The way you made your lines, Heinen fits better at 3rd RW and JFK at 4th C, even though that's not very good either, it's better than what you did.

Signings are light.
Trade doesn't need the pick thrown in. You should almost get Spooner for Merrill straight up, but even with McQuaid is ok because we gain cap relief.
The lines are way out of whack and Agostino won't make it so that's the first error.
I'm convinced Schaller/Nash/Acciari will be the 4th line.

Sweeney did say he was going to give Agostino a shot. Not sure if he meant an NHL shot but that's what it's being interpreted as. I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the lineup come October

The Agostino comments in here are hilarious.

I'll try to respond to all the points in here, and why I did certain things

Krug/McAvoy: Who else is qualified to play with him? Barring a trade (or signing Markov), Krug and Chara are the only two LHD that could possibly play with McAvoy, and Chara already plays with Carlo. Krug might not be a great defensive defenseman, but McAvoy is good enough that I would expect them to control possession, and for McAvoy to make up for a lot of the defensive deficiencies that Krug has which can't be made up for by Miller/McQuaid.

Backes at 3C: There was a comment I saw from someone in the Boston media about the idea that Backes could do a great job teaching JFK how to be a solid two-way center in this league. Combine that with Bjork moving into the top six, and it seemed like a good opportunity to distribute the veterans and the kids more effectively. If you want, JFK can be the 3C and Backes the 3RW, but I think it makes more sense to start this way and return to the other.

Agostino making the roster: Sweeney said Agostino will get a shot. When you're the AHL leading scorer and MVP, you should absolutely get one. While I don't expect him to leapfrog Vatrano, Agostino has the potential to be a superior player to Beleskey along with already being significantly more qualified than Schaller, who put up terrible numbers at every time he played.

Heinen v. JFK: The only reason I decided to do what I did is that you want JFK to get decent minutes at the NHL level. The third line should expect to play something in the 12-15 minute range per game, versus the 8-12 minute range for the 4th line. That's significantly more opportunity and significantly more skill to play with. You also want to give Heinen time, but that being said: who is more important? (That being said, I also see an alternate scenario where Heinen plays 3LW, Nash plays 4C, and Agostino or Beleskey slides into their off-wing)

Signings are light: I mostly thought about the prospects. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect to add a winger (Jagr/Vanek/Stafford) to fill 3RW.

Trade: I included the pick because they're taking McQuaid. If you take McQuaid out, then yes, Spooner-Merrill makes enough sense by itself.

Lines out of whack: Outside of Agostino, where?

Acciari vs. Heinen: Whichever way suits you.

Good post. I think we see a Chara/McAvoy and Krug/Carlo pairing eventually. Not sure if it will start that way, but it should end that way. We'll get a better idea of McAvoy after he plays more than 6 games. The potential of Krug/McAvoy offensively would be insane. If McAvoy comes along defensively a bit quicker than expected, they would be make a fine pairing. But I'll need to see it first.

Not sure why people are ragging on Agostino. It was a low-risk signing with potential for a nice reward. He's not one of these small/slower players who's tears up that AHL. He has size and speed. Blues fans, that I've read, wanted STL to retain him. He'll get a chance here. Who knows it what capacity, but he will definitely get a good look. He has earned it. Some of the reasonings for why he doesn't deserve a look are comical. "He's a turd?" Get out of here hahaha

He's a turd for a 3rd line LW IMO I'd totally stand by that all day, we've got much better options as of now. He's the next Chris Bourque. If he makes it I'll be happy, but I honestly doubt he'll do anything. He'll probably end up around the same level as Czarnik who I'd also call a turd if you put him in the top 9 to start the season as would I call Nash if your plan was to play these types of guys all season on the 3rd line. I just have no faith in him until camp comes and he gets his shot, I'm not complaining about signing him because it was very low risk, but if you literally think he's going to be in the top 9 right now just based on his AHL scoring it'd make me laugh. Like middle aged player scoring in the AHL is a transferable skill to the NHL. It doesn't work that way, AHL scoring is a good indicator for a young guy, but once you're past 23 or 24 it's not really an accurate prediction to how you will fare in the NHL. This isn't like when we had nothing else to put there when Chris Bourque got his shot. We have a lot of youth and depth, so Agostino's going to have to step it up a lot to make an impression. I'd give him a 10% chance to start the year in the top 9 because there are better options. That's not a very hard take, as I know, because I'm still leaving the window open for him to make the roster, but I think he'd be the 13th F if he does. I honestly believe Beleskey is better than Agostino right now and I'd also call Beleskey a minor turd after what he did last season. Not quite a urinal deuce like Jimmy Hayes, but he still smelled it up last year. I hope and believe Beleskey gets back on the horse and that his problems last year were injury related.

Won't happen.. Sweeney will give him a shot to make Providence maybe.....

Hmmmm....wonder why Agostino didn't make St Louis' lineup????????????????

I'm not St. Louis expert, but maybe it has something to do with the fact that they have about 6-7 guys who can play LW on NHL deals.

If I'm counting the Bruins right, I only see three clearly NHL players on LW for the Bruins. I don't think anyone's saying it's a guarantee, but I would fully expect more than the seven games he got last year (which he got three points, not too bad considering he has fewer than 20 total NHL games).

Wow 6 or 7, I'm going to have to pull up the Blues lineup to see all the NHLers that aren't playing in the NHL!!!!!